# tern
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tûrn, IPA: /tɜːn/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) enPR: tûrn, IPA: /tɝn/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Homophones: turn, tarn
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

### Etymology 1

Via an East Anglian dialect, from some Scandinavian (North Germanic) language, related to Danish terne, Norwegian terne, and Swedish tärna, all from Old Norse þerna (“tern; maidservant”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *þewernā (“handmaid, young girl”). First attested in the 1670s.

#### Noun

tern (plural terns)
* Any of various seabirds of the subfamily Sternidae (of the family Laridae) that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail.

##### Alternative forms

* terne (obsolete, 17th c.)

##### Hyponyms

* angel tern
* arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea)
* black tern (Chlidonias niger)
* bridled tern
* Cabot's tern
* Caspian tern
* commic tern
* common tern (Sterna hirundo)
* crested tern (Thalasseus bergii)
* fairy tern
* Forster's tern
* greater crested tern (Thalasseus bergii)
* gull-billed tern
* hooded tern (Sterna minuta)
* least tern
* lesser crested tern
* little tern
* marsh tern
* river tern
* roseate tern
* rosy tern
* royal tern
* sandwich tern
* Sandwich tern
* sooty tern
* swift tern (Thalasseus bergii)
* whiskered tern
* white tern
* white-winged tern

##### Derived terms

* ternery

##### See also

* sea swallow (“common tern”) (one sense)

### Etymology 2

* PIE word
* *tréyes
The noun is derived from Late Middle English terne (“throw of a die or dice showing the number three”), from Old French terne (“gathering of three people; trinity”) (modern French terne), from Latin ternās, the accusative feminine plural of ternī (“three each; three at a time”), from ter (“thrice”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + -ī (from -us (suffix forming adjectives)).
The adjective is either derived from the noun, or directly from Latin ternī (“three each; three at a time”); see above.

#### Noun

tern (plural terns)
* (dated or obsolete) A thing with three components; a set of three things.
** (gambling, dated) A lottery prize resulting from the favourable combination of three numbers in the draw.
*** 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Seventh Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 319:And yet, now even, if Madonna willed, / She'd win a tern in Thursday's lottery, / And better all things.

##### Translations
#### Adjective

tern (not comparable)
* (chiefly botany, rare) Consisting of three components; ternate, threefold, triple.
    Synonyms: ternary, treble, trine; see also Thesaurus:triple
    Coordinate terms: quatern, (obsolete, rare) quine
    tern flowers    tern leaves
    a tern schooner, one with three masts

##### Translations
### References

* ↑ “tern, n.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “tern$^1$, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “terne, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* 1 2 Compare “tern, adj. and n.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2019; “tern$^2$, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* tern on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* tern (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Category:Sternidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
* Sternidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

### Anagrams

* Rent, rent, tren

## Catalan
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin ternus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛrn]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈtɛɾn]

### Noun

tern m (plural terns)
* set of three, trio
* matching three-piece suit

### Further reading

* “tern” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Middle English
### Verb

tern
* Alternative form of teren

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French terne.

### Adjective

tern m or n (feminine singular ternă, masculine plural terni, feminine and neuter plural terne)
* (literary) matte, lackluster, dull (lacking gloss)
* (figurative) colorless, pale (lacking color or contrast)
    Synonyms: monoton, mohorât